Before I even get started on this thing properly, I want to make it very clear that this piece does not signal a shift in what you can expect to see from me going forward on this Substack. I occasionally step outside of the comfortable confines of the genre storytelling experience, and dip my toes into the waters of observational essays and philosophical musings. On rarer occasions, I will divulge a few of my thoughts in the socio-political or current events arena, and those instances are rare because much like the balmy Everglades, it’s an interesting location to visit, but one has to be careful not to get eaten by either mosquitoes or the rampaging reptilian overlords that survived the K-T Extinction Event, the ever-watchful gators that prowl the region.